The United States was near the end. Exhausted after a liberal democrat had done his best to dismantle what was left of the republic and remake us over in the image of an enlightened Europe we were trying to recover from his disastrous war while trying, at the same time, to protect ourselves from the Bolshevik vanguard of the new socialism – aka the old tyranny. The people had not yet gotten used to the idea that they could vote themselves gifts from the public treasury – although one of the leading candidates would finally enshrine that as the only truth that we hold to be self evident – and in a rearguard action the Republicans were able to take the reins of power and slow the nonsense of the archangel Woodrow. Will it happen again – stay tuned for news!

Meanwhile, the 1920 census showed that America had become an urban nation — automobiles, mass production, chain stores, and easy credit were transforming the economy and America was limbering up for the most spectacular decade of its history, the roaring ’20s. Award-winning historian David Pietrusza’s riveting new work presents a dazzling panorama of presidential personalities, ambitions, plots, and counterplots — a picture of modern America at the crossroads.